E-bay complaints

On Mon, 4 Jul 2005, Marvin Johnston wrote: Here here! :) This is very true. I find deals all the time on the VCM that go unnoticed because people don't take it seriously. Well, I'll admit that Patrick and I haven't had any time to put into it for about a year now, but it runs itself and it runs well. And at some point in the not too far off future, we will be finally rolling out all the promised enhancements and be engaging in a HUGE marketing push, so the early adopters will be the ones who will come out on top when this happens (i.e. when we start charging to use it...the people using it now are actually accumulating free service credits). I'll have to add my voice (again) to this. I've always advocated actually going out into "the wild" and finding your collection there. Not only is it much more fun (you actually get to leave your computer and get some sun and fresh air for a change), but you find better deals, you actually get to inspect what you buy beforehand (no mystery "Apple 1" deals), when you do find something its a great rush, and you get to MEET REAL LIVE PEOPLE and interact with them and (gasp!) develop relationships. Also, a lot of times you end up getting more than you bargained for. You inevitably meet up with someone at a swap meet who has just a sampling of the crap in their garage sitting in the parking lot. You get invited to come over to their place and clean out their garage, and that's where they offer you that "old Altair computer that they were going to throw away in the next spring cleaning". You get to hear great first hand stories from people who lived in the past that you are so enamored with, and you get to pass along those stories to others, plus tell ones of your own making as you recount the details of that amazing haul of S-100 or PDP-8 hardware that filled you trunk for which you paid $50. And please don't whine to me about how we have it easy in the Silicon Valley over <insert your podunk location here>. The SV is one of the most picked over places on the planet. People from all over come here to raid the shelves at Weirdstuff and HSC and all the other surplus places here, so it's not like we have it easy (at least not like it was in the 1990s :) EVERYPLACE has old computers waiting to be found. Some of you just have to look harder than others, but they are there. The way you find them is by getting off your ass (and getting some air and sun) and meeting people and developing relationships. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]